Educational Games: A Basic Understanding and Effective Uses

Since the invention of video games, many people would perceive these digital games as just entertainment. Increasingly there has been a shift into taking video games and turning them into educational programs to help people learn. In this paper, I discuss the different forms of educational games which are serious games, it’s subcategory serious educational games, and educational simulations. I compare and contrast the differences as well as provide examples. I also discuss effective ways to use educational games so that they can be more understood as an effective method for teaching. The concepts I discuss about effective educational games include, discussing which games are better suited for training and skills, the more life like something is the more learning happens, how instructional input could affect the effectiveness of learning through educational games, the discussion of gamification vs. game-based learning, the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in students, and lastly the concept of playing in order to learn. All these findings contribute to how effective educational games can be with learning